paper quilts

Much earlier this year (February or March) I visited the Pavel Zoubok Gallery in Chelsea. They were showing work by an artist named Stephen Sollins. He makes paper "quilts" from used envelopes. They were really lovely. I've had these pictures kicking around on my desktop for months now - time to post and share, even if the exhibition is long over.

From an interview he did last year describing his work: “I am interested in using the geometry, grids, and systematic approaches of high modern, minimal, and conceptual art, in part to show how they do and do not relate to more popular and sentimental forms.”

Initially my thinking was that it must be far easier to get precise corner matches using cut paper and glue than it is using fabric and thread. But he evidently "seams" all the pieces together on the backside with tape, not glue on a substrate. That doesn't strike me as a great deal of fun to do. I can imagine my fingers all sticky with bits of cut tape and the tape sticking to everything and having teeny pieces of paper sticking everywhere and so on. Ugh. Doubtless he has worked out some process that I can't quite imagine that enables him to craft these things without losing his mind. I should probably do a little more research on him. He's pretty cute, I think, in that tattooed greying hipster sort of way. Photo snagged from Bard College website.